River Note

River Note:Schuylkill River Trail
by Caitlin Keough

​Re-PLACE-ing Philadelphia is building an expanded archive of cultural memory that includes multiple histories, re-place-ing the established with new narratives and understandings. Notes consider place via the street, sound, food, trees, and other portals.

In partnership with educator Joshua Block, students from Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy are creating and publishing their Philadelphia Field Notes. Caitlin Keough shares images from a recent walk on the Schuylkill River Trail.

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Walking along a trail that I’ve run down hundreds of times was a really interesting experience. I wasn’t in a rush and I had time to look around. I thought I had seen all that this trail had to offer but I was mistaken. When you run you have to stay alert. You need to be aware of your surroundings so you don’t bump into fellow runners. You’re moving fast, everyone else is moving fast, it’s easy to be distracted. So I decided to slow down and take some time to appreciate the small things that I always seem to miss.

This part of the bridge goes over the trail. If you look closely, you can see a bit of the sky in between the pieces of the bridge.

This message I assume is derived from a quote by accomplished author and philosopher, Alan Watts. “You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.”

A little bit of a closer look at the train tracks.

This tiny reminder of the time a storm caused the Schuylkill river to overflow and crest at almost 14 feet.